Abduction (19 page)

“You got it.”
Matt turned the wheel sharply, nearly taking the corner on two wheels. A marked
police car came into view in front of them, lights flashing. Matt started
closing the distance between them while JJ’s knuckles went white as he gripped
the door handle.

“Matt?”

“Yeah?”

“It really
won’t help matters if we die before we get there.”

Matt laughed
and stomped on the gas, passing the police car. “Coward.”

#

“Zoe! Slow
down! I can’t understand a word you’re saying!”

Zoe, on her
knees, rocked as her mother’s voice snapped in her ears. Her grip on the phone
tightened. “Amy’s bracelet, Mom. Where is Amy’s bracelet?”

“What
bracelet? Zoe, what in the world is going on with you? You sound hysterical!”

“The
bracelet!” Zoe screamed into the phone. “You and Dad bought us bracelets for
our fifth birthdays—I.D. bracelets with a diamond in the corner. Where is Amy’s
bracelet?”

“I don’t know,
Zoe. I think she was wearing it when. . .she was taken. You two never took them
off.”

“Oh, God.” Zoe
folded as silent screams racked through her body. “Amy. Amy. Amy.” The chanting
didn’t ease the pain that had her doubled over.

“Zoe, if you
don’t tell me what’s wrong right now, I’m calling the police!”

“Call them.
Mom, please call them. He’s been here. Oh, God. He’s been here. He killed Amy
and now he’s coming after me.”

She lifted her
head and stared at the I.D. bracelet lying on her pillow. A child’s bracelet
with a diamond in the corner. And a name engraved in script across the bar.

Amy.

#

Ted stormed
into his home, startling Karen, who was folding clothes at the kitchen table.
He tossed his briefcase on the counter and started pulling at his tie.

Karen set down one of the towels and picked up
another. “What’s
going on? You’re home so early. It’s not even five.”

“I heard from
the kidnappers!”

Karen felt her
heart lurch as she dropped the towel, staring at her husband. “Jess?”

“She’s fine.
At least that’s what they told me. Said to bring the money but not to call the
police or they’d kill her.”

Karen reached out for Ted and clung to him, her
emotions spinning out of control. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
“When? How soon? How much money? We can get more. I can. . .”

Ted shook his head as he stepped back out of her
arms. “I cleaned out the account. It’s enough.” He reached out and gripped
Karen’s hand. “Karen, I need you to listen to me. No matter what happens, we
can’t let the police know what’s going on. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Karen
nodded, willing to agree to anything. Her baby was coming home!
Oh, Jess, my
love. Just a few more hours.

“I’m going to
get Jess back.” Ted looked around the kitchen, his fingers combing through his
hair, his eyes darting from one thing to another. “Do you have dinner started
yet?”

Karen shook
her head. “No. I was going to make meatloaf. . .”

“I spent my
lunch hour at the bank and didn’t get to eat. I’m famished. Forget cooking.
Just order something for me.”

“Okay. But
what time are you supposed to go get Jess?” Karen twisted an unfolded towel in
her hands.

“I’ve got
about an hour and a half before I have to leave.”

“How long will
you be gone?”

“I’m not sure.
An hour. Maybe a little longer. As soon as I have her safe, I’ll call you.”

Karen put the
towel down. “Why don’t you go take a shower? I’ll call Louie’s and order some
food. What do you want?”

“I don’t know.
I can’t think straight. And my stomach is tied in knots. Just get me anything.”

“I’ll get you
something light.”

“Fine.” Ted
walked into the bathroom, unbuttoning his shirt.

“Ted, I want
to go with you to pick up Jess.”

He stopped and
turned around. “You can’t. They were very specific. Bring the money, don’t call
the police, and I’d better be alone or they’ll kill her on the spot.”

Karen sank down on the bed, feeling as though
every drop of her blood had just turned to ice. “Please don’t let them hurt our
baby.”

Ted knelt down
in front of her, taking her hands in his and rubbing the chill from them. “I
won’t. I promise. Have I ever let you down, baby?”

Karen shook
her head.

“A couple more
hours, Karen. Just a couple more hours and you’ll have Jess back in your arms.
I just need you to hang in there a little bit longer.”

“Okay.”

“Good girl.
Now, why don’t you call Louie’s. I’m starving.”

He turned at
the bathroom door and smiled at her. “It’s going to be fine, Karen. You’ll
see.”

#

JJ eyed the
coffee suspiciously as he poured some into his mug. There was no telling how
old it was.

“I made it
fresh half an hour ago,” Gerry told him as he pulled out a chair at the
conference table and dropped into it.

“Bless you, my son.” JJ set his mug down on the
table and looked
around. “Where’s Matt?”

“I’m here!”
Matt breezed into the room and grabbed a chair. “I was just talking to the lab.
Our guy may have gotten sloppy. They got a good cast mold from that shoe
imprint.”

“Finally, a
break! And what about Ted Matthews?”

Matt nodded as
he clicked his pen. “Talked to him. He said it was no problem. He had to work
until about six and then he’d come straight over. Should be here by six-thirty
or so. Sounded anxious to be of assistance.”

“Let me know
when he gets here.”

Matt nodded
and leaned back. JJ turned to Barone. “Next.”

“You were
right. There is a pattern.” He tossed some papers on the table and started
pointing to things so fast that JJ gave up trying to read anything and just
listened.

“Every five
years or so there are three to five unsolved abduction cases on the records.
All are girls between five and twelve, and they’ve all occurred within a
two-hundred-mile radius.”

“How far
back?”

“Long time,”
Barone said breathlessly. “Twenty years.”

JJ whistled. “Twenty years this guy has been
getting away with
this?”

“Different counties, three different states, never
too many to draw too much attention.” Barone rocked back on his heels. “And
here’s another little thing I found interesting. One of the first children
taken was. . .”

“Amy
Shefford,” Matt interjected, reaching over to pull a folded newspaper out of
his coat pocket. He tossed it to JJ. “Twin sister of Zoe Shefford. It’s in
today’s paper. I meant to show it to you earlier, but we got the call about
Lisa Brandt and I forgot all about it.”

JJ sank down
in his chair, his gaze going first to Matt, then to Barone, then down to the
paper. Page six, bottom of the page.
Psychic’s Sister Starts It All. . .

“She never
told me. Why didn’t she say anything?”

Matt shrugged. “Maybe she didn’t think it was any
of our business.”

JJ glared at him and then went back to reading the
article. “She was only ten. Dear Lord in heaven. And I called her a
fake—telling people she knew how they felt. She
did
know. She knew all
too well.” Well, there was nothing he could do about it right now. He’d talk to
her later. In the meantime, they had another missing little girl.

“Good work, Barone. Keep at it and let me know
anything else you find as soon as you find it. Wayne, check in with Barone as
often as you can and see if he needs you to help him run anything down.”

Wayne nodded.
“Sure, JJ.”

“Okay, guys,
listen up.” JJ held up Lisa Brandt’s photo. “This is our latest victim. She’s
five years old with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and distinct dimples in her
cheeks. No tattoos, scars, or birthmarks. She was last seen wearing blue denim
shorts, a red checkered top, white socks, and white sneakers with a Barbie logo
on the side. Her ears are pierced, but the mother couldn’t remember which
earrings the child was wearing. Most likely just gold posts, but that’s not
confirmed yet.”

Marsha poked
her head in the door. “I’m sorry, JJ, but it’s Mrs. Shefford on line two.”

JJ’s brows
lifted and his face tightened. “Mrs. Shefford? As in Zoe Shefford’s mother?”

Marsha nodded,
her corkscrew curls bouncing around her ears. “She says the killer was at Zoe’s
and left her something. I couldn’t make out what she was saying. She was just
real upset and crying.”

Matt stood up.
“You want me to go handle it?”

JJ shook his
head and tossed his notebook to Matt. “You take over here. I’ll see what’s
going on over at the Shefford house.”

Barone cleared
his throat as JJ walked past him. “I think there’s one more thing you should
know.”

“What’s that?”

“He never
abducts children beyond the end of April. If we don’t catch him by May first,
we won’t get another chance for five years.”

#

Karen headed down to the kitchen in search of her
shoes. They were still under the kitchen table where she’d kicked them off
earlier.

Jess was coming home. She wanted to laugh out
loud with pure joy. Her baby. Safe and sound and coming home. She’d forgotten
to ask how much the kidnappers had demanded, but it didn’t matter. It was worth
every dime they had. She would have paid anything. Any price.

Ted had
promised her he’d get Jess back, and now Jess was coming home. She hadn’t
harmed her daughter! She’d tried to tell everyone, but no one would believe
her. Well, they’d believe her now. And once she had Jess home, she was never
going to let anyone tell her she was crazy ever again.

She grabbed her keys off the hook in the kitchen,
picked up her purse, and headed out the door. She had the best husband in the
world.

#

When JJ
arrived at Zoe’s townhouse, there were two cruisers sitting out front, a
uniformed officer on the front porch, and nothing but chaos inside. Zoe was
sitting on the sofa, her arms folded around her middle, and she was rocking
back and forth, her face white with fear. Or hysteria. He couldn’t quite
determine which. The look in her eyes when she lifted them to meet his was
frantic. She opened her mouth but no sound came out.

One of the
uniformed officers, Jimmy Poole, handed JJ an evidence bag with a child’s
bracelet in it. “Says this was her sister’s.”

JJ took the bag and examined the bracelet through
the plastic.
Amy.

Denise stood,
her fingers twisted and interlocked as she wrung her hands. “My husband and I
gave both the girls I.D. bracelets when they turned five. They always wore
them. I’m almost certain Amy had hers on when she was taken.”

The full
impact of what she said hit JJ like a sledgehammer between the eyes. He
staggered back. “Amy was wearing this? When she was taken? You’re sure?”

Denise nodded.
“As sure as we can be. And there’s something else I think you should know.”

JJ stared at the bracelet in his hand. The killer
had taken Amy Shefford nearly twenty years ago, and now he was coming after
Zoe.
Dear God, could this get any worse?
He lifted his head. “What
else?”

“Zoe has a matching bracelet—with her name on it,
of course—and now it’s missing.” Her bottom lip trembled and her knees buckled
as she sank down next to Zoe. She reached out and
wrapped an arm around
Zoe, but Zoe appeared oblivious.

JJ handed the
bracelet back to Poole and dropped to his haunches in front of Zoe. “Zoe,
listen to me.”

She didn’t look at him. Just kept rocking back and
forth, back and forth. He reached out and placed a hand under her chin, lifting
her face to his. “Listen to me, Zoe. You can’t fall apart now. We almost have
this guy. Do you hear me, Zoe? We’re close. He messed up today. He got sloppy.
He left evidence. We’re going to get him now.”

Zoe shook her
head. “He didn’t get sloppy. He didn’t care. He knows he’s smarter than you. He
knows he has you running in circles. You don’t scare him at all. He took
another little girl today, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” JJ
admitted with a heavy sigh.

“And now he’ll
come after me. At least now I’ll find Amy. I’ll be with her.”

“No! Listen to
me, Zoe. He’s not that smart. We will catch this lunatic. I promise you!”

Zoe shook her
head with a sad, resigned smile. “He’s already miles ahead of you.”

chapter
16

Thursday, April 20

K
aren
pulled into Louie’s parking lot. She sat there for a few minutes wiping away
tears, taking deep breaths, trying to calm down before going into the
restaurant.

In the short
time it had taken to drive from the house to Louie’s, she had started falling
apart. Doubts crowded out all hope of Jessie’s imminent return. What if the
kidnappers had lied? What if they’d already killed Jess? What if Ted was late
meeting them? What if they took the money but didn’t give him Jess?

What if? What if? And all of them worst-case
scenarios. She pulled down the visor mirror and checked her face. Her eyes were
red and swollen, her cheeks splotchy. She looked exactly the way she
felt—like
a woman falling apart in the midst of a crisis. Well, it wasn’t going to get
any better sitting there. Taking a deep breath, she climbed out of the car and
hurried into the restaurant to pick up the food.